Copyright/Fair Use
Federal copyright law applies to all forms of information, including electronic communications, and violations are prohibited under this policy. Infringements of copyright laws include, but are not limited to, making unauthorized copies of any copyrighted material (including software, text, images, audio, and video), and displaying or distributing copyrighted materials over computer networks without the author's permission except as provided in limited form by copyright fair use restrictions. The "fair use" provision of the copyright law allows for limited reproduction and distribution of published works without permission for such purposes as criticism, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research. For more information on this issue, see the following links:
- Begin by reviewing Cal Poly's Copyright and Fair Use policy provisions in the Information Technology Resources Responsible Use Policy.
- Kennedy Library Copyright Basics and Fair Use
- Also, the Stanford University's Copyright and Fair Use Web site provides excellent material on this subject.
- The following are "must reviews" BEFORE placing a music or movie sound bite (that you don't have prior permission to use) on your webpage.
- Music: http://www.musicunited.org/
- Movies: http://www.respectcopyrights.org
Since we're on the subject of copyright, software piracy is a form of copyright infringement that the university actively discourages:
The University will not tolerate academic cheating, plagiarism or theft of intellectual property in any form.